sub plugin_name { my $text_to_return = ...; $text_to_return =~ s{<}{path/to/lt}g; return $text_to_return; } #### my %subst = ( '<' => '&lab;', '&lab;' => 'path/to/lab', ); my ($subst_re) = map qr/$_/, join '|', map quotemeta, keys %subst; sub plugin_name { my $text_to_return = ...; $text_to_return =~ s/($subst_re)/$subst{$1}/g; return $text_to_return; }